Between the Stacks

Chapter 47

By the time I woke up, I knew I was already too late.

My windows were dark and I had that uneasy feeling of waking up from a nap and not knowing if I'd been asleep for a few hours or for a week or even a century. It didn't matter - I knew that I had missed the restaurant opening.

My phone. I had to see the damage.

11:15pm. I was supposed to be there for 7pm.

Five missed texts and three calls from Matteo, and thirty-nine texts from Melissa.

Matteo's were short, likely due to him running around taking care of orders. Melissa's were more descriptive.

Hey! I'm at the back! Got us a table :)

Where are you? They're playing Britney!!!

Are you okay?

Emma! Let me know if you get this!

Are you dead?!?

Okay I will feel bad if you're actually dead but please hurry!

We're heading home now. Hope you're doing okay. Call me.

I had missed it. All of the work Rob and Matteo put into the restaurant, into the launch, and I had missed it because-

I'd been fired. My panic at missing the event had somehow made me forget about what had caused the problem in the first place.

Before I could indulge in my pity party any further, I knew I had to apologize. I called both Matteo and Melissa, but neither picked up. I left messages and apologized profusely, essentially selling them my soul for their forgiveness - even if I didn't deserve it. I didn't mention the firing; I'd rather tell them in person. Assuming, that is, that they would want to see me again. At least Melissa would know I wasn't dead. Then again, maybe she would be the one to kill me.

Shoving my emotions to a shadowy corner of my mind, I turned my thoughts towards what had happened a few hours ago.

How had secure information ended up on my laptop? The idea seemed ludicrous. All I'd done was dig around in publicly available documents.

"Scott was fired too," I muttered to myself.

Scott, who'd also brought up the budget numbers. Scott, who I'd mentioned to Katherine Jaworski the other day.

No. It wasn't possible. I didn't like where my mind was going.

It was too late to call my parents. Melissa and Matteo hadn't picked up. Rob probably didn't want to talk to me, after I'd missed the big event.

I closed my eyes, told myself that this was all a nightmare, and that I would wake up very, very soon.

---

It wasn't a nightmare.

I figured it out from the way I could hear my neighbor stomping around his apartment, banging pots and pans together. A nightmare wouldn't be so mundanely boring.

Since I hadn't set an alarm last night, I had slept in until nine. I'd already missed a call from Matteo and a text from Melissa: Glad you are alive!!! What's wrong? Can you talk?

I fought back the urge to sob into my pillow. Of course she would be kind enough not to be angry.

There was even a text from Wesley: I'm going to do some digging.

I didn't know what that meant, or even if I wanted him to look into it. If both Scott and I had been fired, there was a chance Wesley could be on the chopping block as well.